Early Intervention and Prevention of Reading and Writing Disabilities in Preschool and Kindergarten Children

1. Early Intervention and Prevention of Reading and Writing Disabilities in Preschool and Kindergarten Children Judith Rutberg-Self, Ph.D.

3. It is possible to diagnose and prevent reading (and writing) disabilities Before children can read!!!

4. Early Intervention is Critical

5. The Case for Early Intervention To the extent that we allow children to fall seriously behind at any point during early elementary school, we are moving to a “remedial” rather than a “preventive” model of intervention. Once children fall behind…it may require very intensive interventions… because of the large amount of reading practice that is lost by children each month and year that they remain poor readers.” Joseph Torgesen, Ph.D., Florida State University

6. Why Early Intervention is Not Widely Used in the Public Schools • Current guidelines use a" discrepancy formula” to qualify students for special education services under the designation of specific learning disability. • Severe discrepancy between ability (as measured by IQ) and achievement (as measured by current academic achievement testing) • If there is not a significantdifference between predicted scores based on IQ, then the child is performing at the “expected level” and does not meet criteria for services.

7. Why the Discrepancy Formula is Wrong: The “Wait to Fail Model” • Every state uses a different discrepancy formula – different criteria, different assessments • There is no evidence of intrinsic differences between reading-disabled children with achievement discrepancy and reading disabled children without achievement discrepancy. Both groups make gains with treatment.

8. Comparison of Reading Disabled Children With and Without IQ-Achievement Discrepancy 9

9. Why the Discrepancy Formula is Wrong: The “Wait to Fail Model” • Using a discrepancy model interferes with the early identification of learning disabilities. Poor academic performance cannot be reliably measured until grade 3, creating a “wait to fail” model. Children need to get bad enough to qualify for services. Often, these students never catch up. • Current federal guidelines exclude services to children due to environment, inadequate teaching, cultural, and economic disadvantage, the very children who need services!

10. Demise of the Severe Discrepancy Formula • The Congress has passed a bill that will end the federal law requiring a discrepancy formula in May, 2005, after more than 25 years!!! • New models will need to be set up: • Early Intervention • Three-Tiered Model • Response to Intervention

11. Children Do Not “Outgrow” Learning Difficulties • If a child is not learning at the pace of other children, it is generally not a “readiness” issue! • “Giving it time”, and “waiting a little longer” results in the child falling further behind and damaging her self-esteem. • Early diagnosis and targeted science-driven intervention is critical!

12. Myths about reading and writing Myth # 1 Most children will mature and grow out of their learning difficulties.

13. Reality # 1 • No! Research supports a nature/nurture model. It is better to intervene than to wait. • There are critical developmental periods in which learning to read is easier. • Children do not “mature” out of dyslexia and dysgraphia. • Current research does not support retention for academic deficits.

14. Research on Grade Retentionfrom National Association of School Psychologists • Initial achievement gains may occur during the year the student is retained, but is not sustained. • Retention is associated with significant increases in behavior problems and poor self esteem. • Highest rates among poor, minority, or inner-city youth. • May have positive impact when students are not simply held back, but receive specific remediation

15. Myth # 2 Dyslexia can be cured by phonics training.

16. Reality # 2: No • Some children have deficits in PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS, and unless that is remediated so they can hear the individual phonemes or speech sounds in spoken words, they will not apply phonics productively.

17. Reality # 2: No • Some children have deficits in ORTHOGRAPHIC AWARENESS, and unless that is remediated so they can represent written words efficiently in short-term memory, they will not apply phonics properly.

18. Reality # 2: No • Some children have deficits in RAPID AUTOMATIZED NAMING, and unless they can access words from their “mental dictionary” fluently, they will not become automatic decoders and readers.

19. Myth # 3 • Some children are auditory learners and some children are visual learners (aptitude-treatment model). • Visual learners do best with a “sight word approach”, and auditory learners do best with “phonics”. • Children should be taught according to their learning style.

20. Reality # 3 • There is no scientific evidence to support the theory of learning styles. • It is likely that children who exhibit a particular learning preference may in reality have deficits in the non-preferred area. • Both aural (phonological) and visual (orthographic) processes are involved in word recognition.

21. Myth # 4 • Dyslexic children see letters and words backward and reversals are a strong sign of dyslexia.

22. Reality # 4 • There is no evidence that dyslexic children actually see letters backwards. Reversals are irrelevant to the diagnosis of dyslexia (Shaywitz) • Dyslexic children have trouble in naming, but not in copying letters. • Backward writing and letter reversals are common in the early stages of writing development.

23. Myth # 5 • Left-handedness, difficulties with spatial (including right-left) orientation, trouble tying shoelaces, and clumsiness are associated with dyslexia.

24. Reality # 5 • No research findings support the association of clumsiness and coordination problems with dyslexia. The vast majority of dyslexic individuals (about 88 percent) share a common phonologic weakness. (Shaywitz)

25. Myth # 6 • Reading disabilities are the most common form of learning disability.

26. Reality # 6 • Reading disabilities may be identified sooner, but writing disabilities are more persistent. • Writing disabilities are extremely prevalent in the population of children with learning disabilities.

27. What is Dyslexia • Dyslexia is a specific language-based disorder of constitutional origin characterized by difficulties in single word decoding, usually reflecting insufficient phonological processing.” Reid Lyon, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 1995

28. What is Dyslexia? First signs in kindergarten: Unusual difficulty in learning to name letters and attach phonemes to letters. (Orthographic-Phonological Mapping Relationships) 1st grade signs: Unusual difficulty learning to read single words out of sentence context (sight words and/or phonological decoding).

29. Dyslexia is manifest by variable difficulty with different forms of language, often including, in addition to problems with reading, a conspicuous problem with acquiring proficiency with writing and spelling. Wong

30. Early Warning Signs of Reading Disabilities

31. Early Warning Signs of Reading Disabilities Delay in Speaking • May not begin speaking single words until 15 months and phrases until after their second birthday. • May have family history of late talking. • Some dyslexic children do not exhibit speech delays.

32. Early Warning Signs of Reading Disabilities Difficulties in Pronunciation • Sometimes referred to as “baby talk”. • By age 5-6, a child should have little problem saying most words correctly. • Typical mispronunciations involve leaving off beginning sounds (“pisquetti”), or inverting sounds (“aminal”).

33. Early Warning Signs of Reading DisabilitiesDifficulties With Rhyming • Dyslexic children may show insensitivity to rhyme. • Dyslexic children may confuse words that sound alike. • It is not a matter of intelligence, but of insensitivity to the sound structure of language.

34. Early Warning Signs of Reading DisabilitiesWord Retrieval Difficulties • May use incorrect phoneme – word is close in sound but different in meaning (tornado/volcano). • May talk around a word • May use filler words like “stuff”, “things” instead of actual name of object. • Expressive language problem, not thinking problem.

35. Early Warning Signs of Reading DisabilitiesDifficulty Naming Alphabet Letters • This is the most robust early predictor of dyslexia. • Many children know the names of most of upper and lower case alphabet letters by the entry of kindergarten. • After a full year of kindergarten instruction, children should know most of the letter-sound relationships.

36. Early Warning Signs of Writing Disabilities • Difficulties in Gross and Fine Motor Coordination Contribute to Writing Disabilities • Dyspraxia- difficulty getting the muscles to work together to cooperate in the right way to accomplish a motor action. • “I know what to do, I can explain it, but it’s just that my muscles won’t do it.” • These students hold their pencil in an awkward way, or tightly, which helps them control their muscles better but can also make writing very slow.

37. Early Warning Signs of Writing Disabilities:Difficulty writing the letters of the alphabet from memory: • Handwriting automaticity at an early age (writing alphabet letters quickly from memory) is a strong predictor of the quality of composition in older, normally developing writers. • If letter production is automatic, then the child is able to attend to higher level composing processes, such as deciding what to write about, what to say, and how to say it.

38. In order to assess and treat reading and writing disabilities, it is necessary to understand the underlying sub-processes.

39. Process Assessment • Process assessment has been a method used for treatment of learning disabilities for several decades. • However, the “processes” that were addressed in the past were not scientifically proven for the treatment of learning disabilities.

40. Process Assessment • Examples of past non-scientifically sound processes to treat learning disabilities and dyslexia • Visual-Perceptual training • Doman-Delicato (crawling therapy • Vision Training/Colored lenses

41. Process Assessment • Scientifically valid process assessment treats the underlying processes directly related to reading and writing!

42. Understanding the Functional Reading and Writing SystemVirginia Berninger, Ph.D. Director, U.E. Learning Disabilities Center • The functional reading and writing system draws upon different processes which must be orchestrated together. • The working brain is like an orchestra; each instrument is a separable component, but the playing of all instruments must be synthesized to play music. (Michael Posner, 1988)

43. Functional Reading and Writing System • Phonological system is the aural processing system (hearing) and is the first system to become functional. • It is followed by the orthographic processing system (visual system). • Handwriting relies on the orthographic-motor component and the ability to recognize, retrieve, and form letters automatically.

44. Functional Reading and Writing SystemPhonemic Awareness • Phonological or phonemic awareness refers to the ability to consciously isolate and manipulate the phonemic elements (smallest units of sound) within words. • Reading involves converting written letters into their sounds and appreciating that the words are composed of smaller segments or phonemes.

45. Functional Reading and Writing SystemPhonologic Awareness • Every language has a basic set of elementary sounds called phonemes. Spoken words are formed by combining these sounds into meaningful sequences. (Sattler, 2002) • “Cat” has single letter phonemes that can be segmented into “cuh-ah-t”

46. Functional Reading and Writing SystemPhonological Awareness • Phonological awareness also includes the abilities to segment words into syllables, delete and substitute phonemes, recognize rhyme, and appreciate puns.

47. Functional Reading and Writing SystemPhonological Awareness is Developmental • Preschool children learn to rhyme (perceive the similarity of sound patterns at ends of words). • Mother Goose, Dr. Seuss books • Next, kindergarten children perceive and can segment syllables in words (mon-key). • Finally, by the end of kindergarten, children can perceive and segment phonemes in monosyllabic words (c-a-t).

48. Functional Reading and Writing SystemOrthographicAwareness • Orthographic Awareness involves the ability to process letters and letter units – “built-in spellchecker”. • Orthographic ability is a visual, letter-specific process and is separate from being able to recognize and remember other non-letter symbols.

49. Functional Reading and Writing SystemOrthographicAwareness is Developmental • Preschool- recognize and produce letter-like symbols. • K-1st grade – recognize and produce the letters of their own written language.

50. Functional Reading and Writing SystemOrthographicCoding • Orthographic Coding is the ability to represent (image) a written word in memory, including the entire word as well as discrete segments of a word. • Before children can pronounce written words, they acquire representations of written words in memory and have some knowledge of acceptable letter sequences found in written English (e.g. “u” follows “q”).